Under-Arm Leather Strip

This is just a quick post to look into the techniques of sewing the Under-arm leather strip on. I could have just gone through the photo's myself but thought I'd make a post out of it.

I'm currently on the stage of sewing this section of the corset, hence the sudden need to look into it closer.

Here's an image of piece I am talking about:

Image courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council

This piece is not exactly an essential piece of the corset - only 2 out of the 3 stays that I have viewed had this piece on it and one of those wasn't so much as a decoration as a slightly thicker binding trim. But I think it makes the corset look more stylised and if the comfort of the client is wished, then I'm sure it's a piece that would be wanted.

The hard wearing linen and rigidity of the boned corset would be very abrasive to the soft skin under the arm. This small strip of zig-zagged leather just gives it that smooth feel that would be far more comfortable to wear.

This image above is of a pair of stays (I just write 'corset' for the pure ease of it) in the Bath Fashion Museum and is currently not on display. It is the one I have chosen to base my hand made corset on.

Image courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council.

In the above image you can see that this strip has been sewn on by a top stitching running parallel to the top of the corset and then stitches holding down each individual zig-zag. In the photo above most of these bottom stitches have come undone but in the following photo they are more evident. 

Image courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath and North East Somerset Council.

As I've already mentioned, only one other of the stays that I have viewed during my trips to the Bath Fashion Museum have had this strip and that one was barely a denser trim, but there is another image of a corset from a book that also has this more decorative strip on it's scye section. It is a corset from the V&A collection.

You can only see the corner of it in this image and is of a slightly different design, being more of an eliptical or inverted scalloped edge fhan the zig-zags of the previous corset. The zoom in version also shows the very gentle stitches that hold this piece down.

Well that's it for now - just a very basic post but it has helped me in my research of how to sew this thing on.